Teens' triumph seen, voices heard in HBO special

These four Stockton teenagers turned their "sacrificial" performance into a real triumph.

They get to watch a replay of their accomplishment today during Russell Simmons' "Brave New Voices," a one-hour documentary film on HBO.

"Oh, man, I'm excited," said Dumarrius Steen, 19, a Delta College student who competed on Stockton's With Our Words team during the July 19-23 Brave New Voices National Youth Poetry Slam Championship in Los Angeles. "It's a big move, man. It's a wonderful opportunity. I'm grateful to be part of that, know what I mean?

"Not only because of our art, but what it will do for the city of Stockton. It'll help bring a good reputation to the city of Stockton."

"It's just amazing," said Tama Brisbane, who helped found With Our Words and has guided Stockton students to three national tournaments in three years. "It's just wonderful exposure for the kids and the program. Touring poets tell me they know about Stockton because of that.

"They go: 'Stockton? Oh, you guys did that freeze-frame piece. Those kids are ridiculous.' "

As in, ridiculously good.

Though the six-member Stockton team didn't advance to the final four - missing by 0.3 of a point - tournament coaches chose Steen, Dejanique Armstrong, 16, Devonte Robinson, 17, and Isaiah Stowers, 19, as the "sacrificial" opening act for the July 23 finals at Beverly Hills' jammed, 1,900-seat Saban Theatre.

"When it came to that name," Steen said with a laugh, "it really didn't matter as long as we were able to hit that stage in that place on that night. It's like a family. You're gonna be loved.

"When we got finished, it was a real, true sense of accomplishment. It was an honor to walk off stage knowing we, as Stockton, did that and we're actually gonna be on HBO. To see Stockton's name and four new faces representing Stockton is gonna be crazy."

Steen, fired up about the HBO show, kept his cool that night.

"Intense. Intense," said Steen, who'd never encountered such a large and enthusiastic audience. "I thought, 'Man it's gonna be crazy.' I just concentrated on containing my excitement. When I hit the stage I had no nerves. I was relaxed."

"Picture Frame," which portrays a mother, father and two sons, is "all about hypocrisy in relationships and public perceptions versus private realities," Brisbane said.

The concept was developed in a competitive setting during after-school workshops at Bear Creek High School in the spring. Ashley Campbell, a Weston Ranch High graduate, helped generate it. Each member of the four-person group made contributions.

&byline;"It just came together collectively and we took the piece and really, really, really quickly developed it," said Steen, a graduate of Manteca's Sierra High who also is an aspiring hip-hop performer (So Ambitious). "We worked on it four hours a day for two weeks. It was tough. I wouldn't expect poetry to be so challenging."

Their 31/2-minute "Picture Frame" involves lots of rapid dialogue and quick physical movement as characters "freeze," flashing in and out of the "frame."

"It's so color-coded, it's not funny," Brisbane said of the poem's scripting. "There are sequential lines and sometimes several voices inside the same line. Lots of sentences look like rainbows. It's fairly clean. There are only two curse words."

Stockton's WOW team, which included Mike Gallagher, Deborah Armstrong and Alyssa Langworthy, finished just a fraction of a point behind Albuquerque, N.M.'s poets in Los Angeles.

The Albuquerque group competes with six-student teams from Denver, New York City and the Bay Area (San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Richmond) during Simmons' documentary. Chicago rapper Common (Lonnie Rashid Lynn) and Rosario Dawson, an actor from New York, are the emcees.

Steen, who turns 20 in November, can't compete any longer at this level. So, he's forming an organization (Delta Slam) for college slam-poets. Forty Delta students have signed up.

Brisbane's WOW group is preparing to open The Ill-list, a Dec. 11 slam-poetry competition at Modesto's State Theatre. Stockton's Anthony "The Saint" Gonsalves is defending champion.